The Denza Z sports car has spawned a drop-top, with its eyes firmly on the European market ahead of an official production debut.
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Denza, the upmarket arm of Chinese brand BYD, has revealed its first production convertible.
Based on the Denza Z coupe, the Denza Z Convertible blends mid-engine sports car proportions with four-seater comfort and practicality.
Rather than being mid-engined or even combustion-engined, the Denza Z is all-electric, allowing its designers to give it the low bonnet and raked profile of an exotic performance roadster, without the packaging constraints of an engine behind the seats.
First previewed as the FangChenBao Super 9 concept in 2024, with a windscreen-less speedster profile, the production version has toned down some of its concept’s more extreme styling cues.
Although the complete specifications list for the Denza Z is yet to be announced, the high-performance model is expected to produce over 745kW of power, with a 0-100km/h claim for the coupe version of under 2.0 seconds.
The Denza Z is particularly notable for bucking the 2026 Beijing motor show trend towards SUVs. Amid a sea of various SUVs and crossovers, the Denza Z grabbed attention with its eye-catching low-profile design.
The Denza Z is yet to make its full, official production debut, with the coupe expected to make its official debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July.
Somewhat unusually for a Chinese brand, the Denza Z will be prioritised for Europe ahead of a domestic launch in China.
The four-seat interior can be covered by an electrically-operated folding soft top.
A traditional hooded binnacle shrouds the digital driver’s display, with a large central infotainment screen looking less like what you’d find in high-performance rivals, and more akin to Denza’s range of luxury SUVs and passenger cars.
In a move that’s not typical of the segment, the Denza Z will feature by-wire steering, with an electronic, rather than physical link between the steering wheel and the front tyres.
The Denza Z’s ‘E3’ platform can accommodate a three-motor powertrain, with all-wheel drive.
Suspension will be by magnetorheological adaptive suspension, which Denza calls its ‘DiSus-M’ system, and has predictive road-condition sensing to adjust the dampers in real time.
The Denza Z convertible is set to be joined by a traditional coupe and a high-performance motorsport-focused model that may be used to set a Nürburgring benchmark lap time.
While the Denza Z convertible is the Denza division's first tilt at an open-top model, BYD has previous convertible experience.
The BYD S8 blended the front-end styling of a Mercedes-Benz CLK with the rear of a Renault Megane convertible. Its low-volume production run saw it crack just over 100 sales between 2009 and 2010.
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Kez Casey migrated from behind spare parts counters to writing about cars over ten years ago. Raised by a family of automotive workers, Kez grew up in workshops and panel shops before making the switch to reviews and road tests for The Motor Report, Drive and CarAdvice.
